What motivated you all to join the Merchant Navy.

[Thomas Daley]

The drop of water is really oil. When Piper Bravo came on stream those involved were presented with a glass cub paperweight with a drop of oil. Engraved and lined with gold were all the details.
OIM's on the Tharos in 1988 during Piper were UK. agency, only company man onboard were the storeman. When Red Adair landed on the Tharos (Piper still on fire) asking to be taken to the company mans office were shocked when taken to the stores. Occidental then put two American in quite pronto as they say.
Never on any Seaforth Boats, on a lot of their rival boats with Maersk.
Sailed with a few Grey Funnel guys in Fred Olsen who had left the RN under a (No future promotions possible) cloud, hated the replies and treatment he received for Engineers in the Bar when trying to hand out wisdom, they were soon transferred around the fleet.

Israeli boats answered in msg

[j.sabourn]

#41 yep the last half stripe between Lt. Commdr and full Commander with the brass hat , they used to reckon was the make or break time of life. The only other vessel anywhere near the piper alpha apart from the Tharos and self was the Maersk Runner if memory correct if not it’s in an earlier post he had his monitors on not so much to reach the fire but to cool the sea , but would imagine that would be like putting hot water on top of hot water , he pulled my frc and crew on board over his stern roller when they had to pull clear of the platform, I tried to,get them back myself as needed them on ship but failed ,so am forever grateful to them.There were plenty of boats in the water after the grand event but not during it.Think it was the Glasgow Clipper in Drydock Middlesborough alongside us one of Jacob’s ore carriers. There was going to be a suspected attack on her and the shipyard had police in mufti up cranes and other places all armed , had the dog handler in my cabin learned a lot about police dogs , the first one never approach it from behind or it’ll have you if you don’t smell right.The attack from terrorists never happened , pleased about that. Cheers JS
Correction it was the Maersk Cutter at the Piper , the Maersk Runner I was master on out here if remember correctly, see what happens when one gets old good job I’m getting a brain scan on the 14 June will prove or disprove once and for all if I have one. JS

[Thomas Daley]

#42.
Very small world, where on the R boats from Oct 83 to May 91,
On the Runner many years, Retriever joining it in the Bering Sea, (Deadliest catch area) leaving in Balboa.
On the Cutter 2 years before Piper and a lovely ship.
Runner were posted out to China, Chiwan waters mid/late 86, get ferry from HK to Shekhou which were the "Special Economic Enterprise Zone surrounding HK prior to its 1997 handover. (2010 would be a regular with Seadrill overnighting in Shekhou before going offshore). Onboard the Runner found the commissar were the motorman and always seasick, all others were local fisherman, before departure their families came onboard and took 90% of the Chinese food leaving only rice, fishing lines were out everywhere. Escape hatch from boiler space up to deck had fish/squid hanging from rungs for drying..
Ended up middle years on the ex Husky "S" boats, a tale on how 'DG' at Maersk bought secondhand, icebreaking supply boats from the Canadians, first non Brit crew in the North Sea, hired Cape Verde and not a patch on the Brits.
Back to the Ruler until approached/poached by Asco Smit for dive boat 'DSV Rockwater 1', when my life on semis/drillships offshore started.

As said/written many times, this country with the 'MN' lost an industry that trained guys, teenagers became men, after a few trips knew more about life than those that never left their town.
Learned how to sew, darn and take up trouser legs, perfect ironing skills. Even now any ripped bedding by the dogs (8 off) I sew or patch. Wife needs a few remedial stitches I fix. She were amazed to find my "Housewife" a folding up sewing kit.
There will never be folk like us sefarers again, we are dinosaurs, in fact many are fossils now.

[j.sabourn]

The Maersk Lifter,Retriever, and Supporter were also out here in Oz , brought down on bareboat charter from Singapore 96/97 … JS.

[Des Jenkins]

Hi Thomas.
Takes me about half an hour to thread a needle, but once done I can sew as good as at sea, my wife asks why are you bothering? your Granddaughter has just bought your son three pairs of jeans from the Salvos for $15? I told her jut keeping my hand in in case I go back to sea, that is if they take 93 year old seamen LoL
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des mate, you have the correct attitude.
That is to stay positive.

[Gerald Farr]

What made me think of going to sea? Economics in a way. Back in late 1955, De Havilland advertised for apprentice design draftsmen. Having already got my GCE's in Technical Drawing, Art, Mathematics, English and a couple of other subjects I had the necessary prerequisites to apply. My Father at some time then went to their Head Office to find out what was entailed in applying. The very first requirement, not mentioned in their advertisement, was The Bond. 6oo Pounds Sterling for the five year Apprenticeship, non-refundable if the Apprenticeship was not completed whatever the reason. That apparently included ill-health, sacking for not meeting their expectations of competency, and anything else you could think of to avoid repaying The Bond. I doubt if my Father was earning much more than that a year at the time so that was the economical reason. I then applied to the Fleet Air Arm but was told the intake was over subscribed for the foreseeable future, so back to square one. It just so happened that a friend of the family was at home at the time and they suggested that we went round for a chat one evening quite soon as he would be off again in the next day or so. After tea one evening we went round to their place where he explained that he was Master in Esso Petroleum and how the Merchant Navy took on Apprentices and how you could work your way up. This appealed to me so my Father with a little advice from his friend made some further enquiries and I found myself going to King Ed VII Nautical College short course and then to sea. BP wouldn't have me as I had had a fairly major operation two years previously and they felt that the heat up the Persian Gulf might adversely affect me and advised me to apply to a company trading in more temperate climes. I joined C T Bowring and had a very happy time there until the last year when things started to change, none of us knew what was going on behind the scenes and the fantastic little company drifted off into distance for ever. I will tell the story of how I saw it from my point of view at a later date but I remember the Good times and wouldn't change them for all the tea in China.

[Thomas Daley]

Well done Mr Gerald Farr,
It truly is amazing how many of us ended up with an unplanned life at sea (38yrs for me).
Many of us never really knew let alone considered the sea, met a few who only done a few trips and announced, "Not for me" yet for many of us we took to the irregular hours, strange food, sometimes still alive, one month 'Baltic' weeks later 40'c and up. Losing our heart to Ingrid, Bonnee, Crystal then Suzi, lucky for us the ship sailed and ours heart mended and hardened. When I became based in Thailand some guys were amazed at my fortitude of not falling for a Thai woman, (I did but 10+yrs after arrival).
Going to sea many miles from home gave a lot of us opportunities to settle in a foreign field, I have settled in a farming area 45minutes from Thailand's 2nd biggest city, Korat, home is surrounded by rice fields and sugar cane, have 8 dogs doing perimeter duty, keeping rats, snakes, feral cats and two legged rats and snakes out.
Like many of us here, the MN made us what we are and gave us all we have, for that I count my blessings.

[j.sabourn]

The only jobs I knew ashore was mainly whilst school boy and from the age of 10 started off doing shopping for an old lady neighbour. Newspaper rounds galore both morning and night, Shoe cobblers message boy delivering shoe repairs and bringing them in from customers, butchers boy after school hours and Saturday mornings which I even did whilst attending pre sea school. Those days cobblers charged or at least the one I worked for
12/6 d. Soled and heeled with a Philips stick on sole to last longer. I used to start off with 1 pound of change in the cash bag 10/- note , 2 half crowns, 2 florins, 1 sixpence , and 6 pennies. To me the sea was an occupation an honourable one at that , and what it did teach us all was discipline and able to make decisions, and able to size others up , and be able to live with.Cheers JS
One of my daughters friends was marrying a young marine engineer who at the time was away for a maximum of 6 weeks , she was having doubts and asked my wife about long absences, my wife’s reply was the shortest trip I ever did whilst married was on the ore carriers , otherwise the shortest was 6 months, and if she married a seafarer she should be prepared for long absences it was his job you were marrying as well. Think the outcome was they didn’t get married. Cheers JS

[Thomas Daley]

#41 The only other vessel anywhere near the piper alpha apart from the Tharos and self was the Maersk Runner rs.
Correction it was the Maersk Cutter at the Piper , the Maersk Runner I was master on out here if remember correctly, see what happens when one gets old good job I’m getting a brain scan on the 14 June will prove or disprove once and for all if I have one. JS

Mr J Sabourn.
Correct on the Cutter being the first boat to put water on "Piper", but sadly with 'Piper' (Also Claymore) being totally enclosed the water in general ran off, little more than boundary cooling, forget the name of the captain of the Cutter but, you could tell he were badly affected seeing what unfolded that night and his comment of "Our water had the same effect as spitting into a fire", you being on the scene must have memories seared into your consciousness.
Claymore as one of its upgrades were stairways built on the outside as an emergency means of escape.
Tharos had 4 x 4.16kv Fire water pumps that failed to put water on Piper. I will keep it short???
Fire pumps were started in the Tharos control room by a "TDC computer controlled keyboard", but, monitors controlled from the Fwd/Aft bridges the pumps were electric start, not Star/Delta, but, via "Auto Transformers". What happened were not submitted to Lord Cullen when he did his report on the Tharos and her failings.
Control room started the pumps and before the sequence were over all 4 pumps would shutdown, to prevent overheating of the transformers you could only have 3 attempts at starting, then you had to wait (Think 1 hour) before being allowed to start again.
The late Finlay Simpson were Chief Electrician onboard and told me this when I became his back to back.
There were only a phone line from the control room to Fwd/Aft bridges, to talkback, sound powered phones like you would have on a ship. The engineers and mates became runners from the ECR to aft bridge had anyone done/touched anything on the fire system. One mate said he had manually opened all 4 discharge to sea valves on the monitors??
This had a shutdown effect on the start/run automatics!! System had stages of valves opening and pressure when seen go to the next stage.
The pump discharge line to deck had pressure switches when water pressure reached, overboard would open. With overboard valves already open no pressure detected on a running water pump it shutdown since you could be filling the leg with seawater.
The automatics were all bypassed/hotwired to enable firewater on "Piper".
Someone thinking they were helping actually hindered. Finlay and myself had to sign the Cullen report findings where applicable to the Tharos, William Paterson, Peter Murphy as C/Engineers also signed, yet, we all knew the "Tharos" had not done wrong she had operated as designed.
Only seafarers get an emotional attachment to a vessel

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Grammar mistake... instead of 'to talkback' it should be 'No' talkback.
Apologies